PYMNTS.com: The Unintended Consequences of Durbin's Proposed Routing Legislation
Competition, through routing mandates, proponents say would drive down the transaction costs for merchants since merchants could opt to send Visa and Mastercard transactions over lower cost rails. In a letter to Congress, the Merchant Payments Coalition (MPC) said the credit card market is “not functioning,” since it is dominated by Visa and Mastercard, with a combined 83% market share. According to the MPC and its members, this purported lack of competition drives up prices for merchants and they say, ultimately consumers and “strangles” innovation. The four-party model that supports the general-purpose credit card market globally is monetized through credit card interchange rates set by the networks and paid by the merchants who accept credit cards issued by banks. MPC says that those fees mean that merchants are forced to pass those higher costs onto consumers.
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Convenience Store News: New Rules Bring Competition to Online Debit Card Transactions
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) also supported the Federal Reserve's approval today of the new rules, which also apply to contactless cards and digital wallets. "This move will bring badly needed competition to our nation's broken payments market," said Doug Kantor, MPC executive committee member and NACS general counsel. "When Congress said merchants had the right to route debit transactions to the processor of their choice, they meant all transactions, not just those in stores. The Fed has followed through on Congress' intent and made it clear that big banks' evasion of competition must stop. Visa, Mastercard and their bank members should not be allowed to shut out other networks that can do the job more efficiently and more securely."
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Politico: Retailers Eye Defense Bill for Key Priorities
Leon Buck, a lobbyist for the National Retail Federation and a top executive for a lobbying group that represents retailers, the Merchants Payments Coalition, on Tuesday said that “these amendments would reveal how much swipe fees are costing our nation’s active duty military and veterans and introduce competition that would bring these fees under control.”
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MarketWatch: Visa 'Stands to Lose the Most' From Fed's New Debit Card Rules, Analyst Says
“This ruling is particularly important given the dramatic shift to e-commerce during the pandemic and the increased use of mobile apps and digital wallets for in-store purchases,” said Doug Kantor, an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition, in a release. “These transactions account for a rapidly increasing share of our nation’s economy and the Fed has closed a major loophole that allowed them to escape the competition intended by Congress.”
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NACS Daily: Senators Seek to Assess Impact of Swipe Fees on Wounded Veterans
“Wounded and disabled veterans and military heroes shouldn’t have to pay extra when they use a credit card at military commissaries,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Retail Federation Vice President for Government Relations, Banking and Financial Services Leon Buck said. “No one should have to pay these high, out-of-control fees, but certainly not our heroes.”
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Payments Dive: Fed Majority Votes to Finalize Debit Rule
“When Congress said merchants had the right to route debit transactions to the processor of their choice, they meant all transactions, not just those in stores,” National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in a statement issued by the Merchants Payments Coalition. “The Fed has followed through on Congress’ intent and made it clear that big banks’ evasion of competition must stop. Visa, Mastercard and their bank members should not be allowed to shut out other networks.”
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Progressive Grocer: Retailers Applaud Fed's Clarification Regarding Competitive Routing on Debit Transactions
"This move will bring badly needed competition to our nation’s broken payments market,” said Doug Kantor, executive committee member of the Merchants Payment Coalition and National Association of Convenience Stores general counsel.
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NACS Daily: New Fed Rules to Ease Visa and Mastercard's Anticompetitive Control of Online Debit
“This move will bring badly needed competition to our nation’s broken payments market,” said NACS General Counsel and MPC Executive Committee member Doug Kantor. “When Congress said merchants had the right to route debit transactions to the processor of their choice, they meant all transactions, not just those in stores. The Fed has followed through on Congress’ intent and made it clear that big banks’ evasion of competition must stop. Visa, Mastercard and their bank members should not be allowed to shut out other networks that can do the job more efficiently and more securely.”
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Merchants Welcome Proposal to Assess Impact of Credit Card Swipe Fees on Wounded Military Veterans
MPC welcomed proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that are intended to address soaring credit card “swipe” fees that drive up costs for many veterans when they buy groceries or other necessities at military commissaries.
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Merchants Say New Federal Reserve Rules Will Ease Visa and Mastercard's Anticompetitive Control of Online Debit
MPC welcomed the Federal Reserve’s long-awaited approval of new rules making it clear that merchants’ right to choose which payment networks process trillions of dollars in debit card transactions each year applies the same online as it does in stores and must be honored by banks and card companies.
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